Fireworks
by Golem XIV
Summary: One-shot. Raven and Beast Boy enjoy the New Year's Eve fireworks from the roof of the Tower.


**Author's Note:**

Well, since New Year is almost upon us, it's no wonder I had this little piece pop up into my mind. Took me a morning to write it up and polish it a bit.

Yeah, the idea has probably been done a hundred times already, but so what.

Oh, of course, the boring **disclaimer:** I don't own the characters or the names or the title or anything else.

oOo

Her head _hurt._

She sighed and massaged her temples, trying to close herself to the unstoppable tide of emotions that were flooding the Tower. But doors and walls could not attenuate her empathic sense, and the feelings of at least thirty young superheroes having a New Year's celebration crashed into her again and again, no matter what she did to try and insulate herself from it.

Someone knocked at her door, causing a flash of anger to sweep through her.

"Yes?" she inquired sharply, her control slipping.

"Friend Raven, it is I!" a happy voice came from behind the closed door. "It is the half past the eleventh hour, and we all wish you to be with us and share in the welcoming of the New Year!"

Raven sighed and squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her fingers harder into the sides of her head.

"Give me a few minutes more, Star!" she managed to say to the door. The bubbly Tamaranean was apparently satisfied with her answer and her aura floated away to increase the already unbearably bright array of emotions that blazed from the Ops room.

 _Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…_

Her body fell into the familiar, soothing rhythm of breathing and her mind slowly started calming down as her mantra allowed her to focus and ignore the tidal wave of sensations and feelings that was flowing into her. The headache slowly began fading.

Again someone knocked at her door.

Red flames appeared for a second in her eyes when she sensed who was knocking.

 _Oh, sweet Azar deliver me. Not him. Anyone but him._

"Rae?"

"What _is it_ , Beast Boy?" she snarled at the closed door. As always, it felt good to snap at him. As always, she felt the sharp stab of shame in her gut as soon as she did it.

"It's a quarter to midnight, Rae!" his voice came from behind the door. "You'll lose the countdown!"

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. Go back to the party!" she answered angrily, feeling the emotions of all the gathered Titans start to overwhelm her again.

"Oh, no, you won't!" she heard. A few seconds later Beast Boy appeared in front of her, morphing into his normal form back from the insect shape he took on to crawl under her door.

" _Beast Boy!_ How _dare_ you!" she spluttered, completely taken aback. "What gives you the right –"

He offered her his hand, grinning at her. "I've made a New Year's resolution. No sense waiting, I want to carry it out right away."

" _Get out of my room!_ Who do you think –"

"I figure you've got two choices, Rae. You can throw me out through the window, or you can come with me," he told her, his green eyes glowing with playful defiance. "If you throw me out of the window, you'll break the glass and the cold will force you to leave your room and join the party. In either case, I win."

The red fire in her eyes blazed furiously. "I could also send you to some very unpleasant places!" she growled at him menacingly.

His grin widened. "Of course you could. But I don't believe that you would."

She bared her teeth and lifted her hand as if to make her threat true, but his grin never faltered. He watched her with an expression of calm affection, and she hesitated. The fire in her eyes slowly extinguished.

There was something different about him tonight. The normal pattern of his emotions was gone; instead of the usual blinding whirlpool of churning feelings there was a translucent, sharp, clear, softly glowing emerald crystal in the core of his soul. All of him was laid bare to her, the realization of what he felt and what it meant crashing down on her, stunning her, brushing aside all her carefully constructed bulwarks of denial and flooding over the mighty levees of her self-deception. The light in his soul was soft and blinding at the same time, reaching for her and illuminating what was hidden in the dark corners of her own heart for her to see, understand and accept.

It dazed her completely, stunned her absolutely, destroyed her awareness of her surroundings. She felt his hand touch and envelop her own.

"Come with me," he said quietly, his eyes still glowing with affection, his grin happy and playful. He pulled her out of the room gently but irresistibly.

She couldn't fight back. She tried to follow him but stumbled, her legs stiff, her knees trembling. An automatic, unconscious part of her mind activated her levitation and she floated behind him as he pulled her towards the stairwell.

Her empathic sense was just as bewildered as the rest of her. All external emotions were forgotten, drowned by her own internal chaos. Her mind was whirling, her heart was pounding and blood was rushing to her face. He guided her unresisting, floating form up the stairs and to the Tower's roof.

Her mouth worked, trying to find words to drive him off. Her hands twitched, wanting to push him away. Her legs jerked, wishing she could run and hide.

He made her follow him to the edge of the roof, then stepped behind her and enveloped her in a tender embrace, placing his chin on her shoulder. His cheek was pressing into hers, his warmth burning her wherever they touched, his scent assaulting the already hopeless chaos in her mind, driving any rational thought away.

"Any moment now," he whispered in her ear, his breath a sweet fire on her neck.

The countdown finished and the fireworks started. Stars of all colors burst across the sky, blazing in coruscating fragments that extinguished as they fell, only to be replaced with new ones, lighting the entire firmament. Fiery petals opened colorful flowers, burning snakes of all hues slithering above the crescent moon, volcanoes erupted blazing cinders of green and blue and red and white, blinding white storms turned into gently falling violet rain, torrents of blue shot up like water from a fountain to flare into silvery sparks as they reached their highest point and then fall in a slowly dimming red shower and darken and disappear. The thunder of the explosions came at them dilated in time for a few seconds, almost unheard over the pounding of her heart in her ears.

His arms uncoiled from around her and his hands fell on her shoulders, turning her around to face him.

"That was amazing," he whispered. "But it is a pale, colorless shadow compared to you."

Her magic surged out. A large satellite dish crumpled like paper. The concrete housing of a ventilation shaft was crushed to pebbles and dust.

His face came closer. Paralyzed, she could only close her eyes and wait.

She felt his arms embracing her and the painfully sweet touch of his lips on hers. The black tornado howled around them.

His lips pressed harder and she broke, finally giving in, irrevocably surrendering to him and to her feelings, at last accepting what she now knew was in her all that time, once and for all coming to terms with herself.

No longer confused and conflicted, her power enveloped them in a black, transparent cocoon, keeping them warm and protected from the single-digit cold and the freezing wind. White sparks began dancing throughout it as she pulled him closer and returned his kiss. Time held no meaning any more; the entire universe coalesced and concentrated and focused on the feeling of his lips on hers, of his arms around her, of his warmth and his scent and the hammering of his heart and –

"Do you not agree that this sight is even better than the works of the fire, friend Cyborg?"

"Sure do, Star!"

Their heads whipped around guiltily to see just about all their friends standing there, staring at them, huge grins on their faces.

"Do you _mind?_ " Raven shouted angrily.

"Hey, we just came here to watch the fireworks!" Cyborg smirked. "You two should get a room!"

Raven's anger vanished. A crooked smile spread across her face.

"Why, thank you, Victor. That is a very good idea!" she said and gestured, opening a portal to her room and dragging a grinning Beast Boy through it.


End file.
